Racemes 10-67 cm. Flowers 5-35, showy; sepals and petals open, spreading, usually not nodding; sepals 8-18 mm; petals 7-18 mm; lip 7-16.5 × 4.4-8.5 mm; column 4-6.5 mm. Capsules 12-30 mm. 2n = 42.

Flowering spring--early summer. Coniferous, deciduous, and mixed woods, lakeshores, swamps; 0--2600 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), Ont., Que., Sask.; Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nev., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Wash., Wis., Wyo.

A parasitic wasp (Pimplinae, Ichneumonidae) has been found visiting flowers and removing pollinia of Corallorhiza striata var. striata, our most striking and largest flowered coral-root (J. V. Freudenstein 1997).